until Sept. 1811 he served in the East Indies on board the Clorinde 38, Capt. Thos. Briggs, Russel 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Wm. O’Brien Drury, and Diomede 50, Capt. Hugh Cook. While in the last-mentioned ship, of which he had been ordered to act as Lieutenant 31 Oct. 1809, he was officially promoted by commission dated 4 May, 1810. His next appointments were, in the course of 1812-13, to the Chatham 74, Capt. Graham Moore, Minerva 32, Capt. Rich. Hawkins, and Nymphe 38, Capt. Farmery Predam Epworth, on the North Sea and North American stations. On 7 June, 1814, he was promoted to the command of the Gorée 18, at Bermuda; and on soon afterwards removing to the Rifleman 18, he was for a considerable time intrusted with the charge of the trade in the Bay of Fundy. In Aug. 1815 Capt. Napier went on half-pay, having previously, from private motives, declined accepting a piece of plate which had been voted to him for his care in the conduct of convoys between the port of St. John’s, New Brunswick, and Castine. His last appointments were – 23 Jan. 1821, to the Jaseur 18, on the Halifax station, whence he returned in July, 1823 – and, 6 July, 1826, for a brief period, to the Pelorus 18, lying at Plymouth. He attained his present rank 31 Dec. 1830.
Capt. Napier married, 17 Nov. 1823, Miss Caroline Bennet, and by that lady, who died at Florence 5 Sept. 1836, had issue three children. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
NARES. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 12; h-p., 33.)
William Henry Nares entered the Navy, 9 June, 1802, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Carysfort 28, Capt. Geo. Mundy, with whom he continued to serve, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Hydra 38, on the Channel and Mediterranean stations, until July, 1808. Among the numerous captures at which he assisted during that period, we may enumerate the gun-brig No. 51 of 3 guns, the lugger No. 411 of 1 gun, Le Furet national brig of 18 guns and 132 men (taken off Cadiz lighthouse in the presence of four French frigates 27 Feb. 1806), the Spanish war-schooner Argonauta pierced for 12 guns, the armed polacres Le Prince Eugène of 16 guns and 130 men, Belle Caroline of 10 guns and 40 men, and Rosario of 4 guns and 20 men, protected by a 4-gun battery, a tower, and a body of musketry in the harbour of Begu, on the coast of Catalonia, and numerous privateers. He was also, during Nelson’s pursuit of the combined fleets to the West Indies, employed in defending Sardinia, Sicily, &c., against the designs of the enemy. In Nov. 1808 he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Roman 16, Capts. Sam. Fowell and Wm. Henry Whorwood, to which vessel, also stationed in the Mediterranean, he was confirmed 17 April, 1809. After again serving with Capt. Mundy in the Hydra, we find him, in the early part of 1811, co-operating in the defence of Cadiz, with his name successively on the books of the Standard 64, Capt. Aiskew Paffard Hollis, Hound, Capt. Chas. Phillips, and Milford 74, flagship of Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats. His next appointments were to the Implacable and Ajax 74’s, Capts. Joshua Rowley Watson and Sir Robt. Laurie, Apollo 38, Capt. Bridges Watkinson Taylor, and Havannah 36, Capts. Edw. Reynolds Sibly and Gawen Wm. Hamilton. In the Apollo, besides assisting at the capture of the Ulysse xebec of 6 guns, and at the reduction of the islands of Augusta, Curzola, and Malero, he commanded two of her boats, with two others belonging to the Cerberus 32, in a gallant and most determined and successful attack (productive of a loss to the British of 1 officer, Mr. Suett, and 1 seaman killed, and 1 marine dangerously wounded) on a convoy protected by 11 gun-boats near Otranto, where the cliffs were covered with French troops, 28 May, 1813.[1] In the course of the ensuing month, with three of the Apollo’s boats under his orders, Lieut. Nares boarded and took, despite some resistance, a French gun-vessel, mounting a 12 and a 6-pounder, and having on board M. Bautrand, Chief of Engineers at Corfu. While awaiting, near Morto, in Albania, the return of a flag-of-truce sent to land the wounded enemy, nine in number, at Corfu, he was assailed, with his two remaining boats, by 6 gun-vessels, a felucca, and a row-boat, all full of troops, and compelled to run on shore upon the border of the French territory at Parga. Until his ammunition was expended he kept this large force from landing; having then no alternative, he took refuge for several days in the mountains. Before he finally left the Apollo, Lieut. Nares was intrusted, from Jan. to April, 1814, with the command of the Weasel 18. In the following Oct., having previously, we believe, accompanied, in the Havannah, the expedition against Baltimore, he took up a Commander’s commission, bearing date 1 July, 1814, appointing him to the Philomel 18, which sloop, however, he never joined. He has since been on half-pay.
Commander Nares married, first, 26 Aug. 1820, Elizabeth, daughter of the late John Alex. Dodd, Esq., of Redbourn, co. Herts; and secondly, 24 Oct. 1844, Susan, relict of the late John Ramsay, Esq. of Barra.
NASH. (Lieutenant, 1826. f-p., 18; h-p., 19.)
John William Cornelius Nash was born 1 Nov. 1802, and died in July, 1846. He was son of the late Capt. Jas. Nash, R.N. (1802), a very distinguished officer; nephew of the late Capt. John Nash, R.N. (1802); and grandson of Mr. Rich. Nash, Purser and Paymaster R.N. (1781), who served in that capacity under Lord St. Vincent. He was the last survivor out of 14 of his family who had been all devoted to the Naval service.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1811, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Salvador del Mundo 112, commanded by his father, under whom we find him for six years employed, on the Home and North American stations, in the same ship and in the Saturn 56, Loire 38, Impregnable 98, St. George 100, and Berwick 74. After passing about three years at the Naval College at Portsmouth he became Midshipman, in 1820, of the Spartan 46, Capt. Wm. Furlong Wise; and next, of the Seringapatam 46, Capt. Sam. Warren, Isis 50, Capt. Thos. Forrest, Renegade schooner, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Edw. Fiott, and Primrose 18, Capt. John Stoddart, on the Home, Mediterranean, and West India stations. He was confirmed a Lieutenant, 11 Feb. 1826, into the Dartmouth 42, Capt. Henry Dundas, at Jamaica; and he was lastly, between 1827 and 1830, employed at Plymouth in the Ocean 80, Capt. Patrick Campbell, Britannia 120, Capt. Edw. Hawker, and Caledonia 120 – commanding part of the time the Royalist tender of 10 guns.
He married, about 1830, Amelia, daughter of Hugh Stewart, Esq., R.N.
NASON. (Lieutenant, 1809. f-p., 9; h-p., 35.)
Henry Nason lost a brother at the battle of Almeida.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 March, 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Antelope 50, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Wm. Sidney Smith; and, on 16 May, 1804, was present in an attack made by a British squadron on a division of the enemy’s flotilla passing alongshore between Flushing and Ostend. After a servitude of two years and a half in the North Sea and off Brest in the Crescent frigate, Capt. Lord Wm. Stuart, he again, in Dec. 1806, joined Sir W. S. Smith on board the Pompée 74, in which ship, in the course of 1807, we find him sharing in a series of operations on the coast of Calabria, and accompanying also the expeditions past the Dardanells and to Copenhagen. During the 20 months which immediately preceded his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 28 Oct. 1809, he served on the Home and Brazilian stations in the Victory 100, Capt. John Serrell, and London 98, Foudroyant 80, and Diana 38, bearing each the
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 1794.
